Tainted fentanyl claims over 100 lives in Argentina
The death toll from contaminated fentanyl administered in Argentine hospitals has risen to over 100, the government said on Thursday, as public anger mounts over the slow response to the crisis.
Authorities have been investigating since May to determine how many fatalities were linked to bacteria-infected batches of the drug, which were distributed to hospitals in four provinces and the capital, Buenos Aires.
According to a statement from a spokesperson for Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei, Ariel Furfaro Garcia, owner of the HLB Pharma Group, was identified as the “manufacturer of the contaminated fentanyl batch responsible for more than 100 deaths.”
The statement also noted that Argentina’s drug regulatory agency, ANMAT, had shut down the laboratory three months before the first fatalities from the tainted fentanyl were reported.
Furfaro Garcia has denied any responsibility, reportedly accusing a former colleague of planting false information in the media.
Two weeks ago, relatives of victims protested outside a hospital in the city of La Plata south of Buenos Aires, where the first deaths were reported, demanding “justice for the fentanyl victims.”
The latest increase in the death toll comes just weeks before September 7 legislative elections in Buenos Aires province, which is the most populous in the country.
The vote is considered a prelude to October’s national mid-term legislative elections, which will serve as a popularity test of the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” Milei.
At a campaign rally in La Plata, Milei accused the followers of his arch-nemesis, left-wing ex-president Cristina Kirchner, of an “atrocious cover-up” of Furfaro Garcia’s involvement in the fentanyl deaths, without providing evidence.
Calling Furfaro a “longtime Kirchnerist associate,” he accused his rivals of getting “getting away with any atrocity.”
A probe into the fentanyl deaths first arose from a complaint filed by ANMAT, which had received a report from a hospital that discovered the tainted drug in its supply, an employee of the agency told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Experts have warned that the death toll could rise as new medical records are reviewed and cases are confirmed in hospitals that to date had not reported any fentanyl-linked deaths.
